Nairobi, Kenya, Mar 20- Four suspects have been arrested in a syndicate involving the sale of examination papers to candidates sitting the ongoing Kenya Certificate of Secondary Schools Examinations (KCSE).
The arrest came after detectives attached to the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) opened investigations on the malpractice a week ago.
The Ministry of Education is yet to confirm if the papers were genuine.
Police say that investigations have established that the four suspects are college students in at least four institutions of higher learning.
“The main suspect Gideon Kibet Tanui alias Evans Kipruto, an Information Technology student at Baringo Technical College, was picked from his rented room next to the college on March 15, at around 10:30am, while he was busy administering English paper 2 and Chemistry paper 1, to students of Silibwet and Sitoito secondary schools in Molo, via his what’s app group with a following of 70 members,” the Directorate of Criminal Investigations said Sunday.
The suspect, who was allegedly selling the examination papers at Sh500 per paper, was also discovered to be a member of two fraudulent examination Telegram groups with over 17,000 followers.
The agency said that the suspect’s Mpesa account had over Sh10,000 at the time of his arrest.
He was also operating a separate KCB account at Kabarnet branch, where he would transfer the received cash from his Mpesa to avoid reversals.
“In order to conceal his identity, the SIM card he was using was registered using the identification details of one Evans Kiprono,” he added.
The DCI said that the operation also involved the DCI social media agents and Twitter admin who posed as candidate.
His arrest led the detectives to another suspect, Kevin Kiprotich Langat, a bachelor of arts student in Swahili, at Rongo University, who was arrested on Thursday.
Langat who was in constant communication with the first suspect had forwarded the English paper to him, according to the agency.
“It is at Rongo University where a wider syndicate of the examination fraudsters existed, in a Telegram group dubbed the ‘Kale Group’ created under the name ‘Bailing Out’ among other groups,” the DCI said.
Langat led detectives to yet another suspects a first-year political science and Swahili comrade, identified as Justice Leting, who at the time of arrest was busy distributing the Kiswahili paper and preparing answers for the Chemistry practical paper.
“In Leting’s WhatsApp forum, a candid interaction between him and a student named Bett was retrieved, where Leting assured him that all was well and that the answers he had provided were legit since he was a ‘star’ in Swahili, during his time,’ the agency said.
The agency said that using cyber and digital forensics, detectives have intercepted tens of messages containing screenshots of the papers that are currently being examined, including handwritten answers which will be subjected to forensic document examination at the DCI National Forensic Laboratory, to ascertain the authors.
“In spite of the concerted efforts that the Ministry of Education led by the Cabinet Secretary and KNEC officials have employed to uphold the integrity of administering the examination, the efforts are being jeopardized by crooked government officials at county levels,” The DCI said.
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